Norway
Impossible to unsubscribe from their emails successfully (which is illegal here in Europe). Even their unsubscribe page (which doesn't work) tries to set notifications to you. Marked as spam in googlemail; hopefully enough people do this and gmail block them!
Where to begin? Chaotic and uncoordinated from beginning to end! Their booking site shows one price in the calendar, then much higher when you go to book. You try to request a special meal: after a lot of emails and even requests to send your passport by email (!) you are told it can’t be done. Meat meals only. You try to check-in online. “This option is being implemented”. Except it’s not. The flights from Amsterdam are jam-packed and everyone’s randomly allocated a seat before checkin is opened, so there’s nowhere to move seats to even if you come early. Yes you could (perhaps) have bought a seat during booking if you feel $54 US is a fair price for 67B. The booking process loses my frequent flyer number (deliberately?) Confusing emails (some only in Mandarin) are sent about how to pay for a return flight if you’re denied entry for covid reasons. You have to register a RAT test on a dysfunctional government website (yes, August 2023 and still RAT tests!) Airport Checkin is full of misinformation: Skyteam check-in staff have been told that bags and boarding passes are good only to Xiamen, then you’ll have to leave the airport and go through the whole process again. This is “because there are so many people on the flight”. Hello?!! Amsterdam to Xiamen is chocklablock full, with nice attendants, reasonably clean plane and 31” legroom, but it’s chicken or beef only, and no bassinets mean screaming babies are randomly scattered around the plane. People who wanted windows have been given aisles and vice versa, couples seated apart, etc, and it was all solvable; 11hrs is a long flight. “De-planing” is met with long unexplained delays. Xiamen airport is a confused mess. Eventually, after 90 minutes chasing our luggage, it’s discovered that the bags DID go through, but it’s not possible to check-in till 3hrs before the next flight (9hrs). You have to join the massive customs queue anyway. Transfer passengers are guided (well, not really … you eventually find it by queueing in the wrong place) to a subterranean basement for 6hrs; I try my luck with the free hotel. 2.5hrs after landing I’m there. It’s good (but be prepared to share a room), but you have to find 100 yuan somewhere for the taxi (on a Sunday it was only 25 each way but you should allow 50). Money changers charge a whopping €5 commission even for small amounts. Hotel has no free wifi for foreigners and staff speak zero English. Check in again (regardless of whether you went to a hotel or not) maximum 3hrs before the flight. Oh, except if the immigration or customs officers have found something they don’t like about you. My neighbour (from Spain) was detained by them for 3hrs over questions about her Australian visa which were already resolved in Amsterdam. She shouldn’t even have had to deal with them as she was planning on staying in transit. Once again the terminal wifi is not working for foreign phones. There’s no help desk. Sit in boredom in an extraordinarily dull terminal. Yes I saved €100 but it was absolutely not worth the hassle and stress. Stick to more professional airlines.
Whilst their member centre is very responsive, their website and documentation is littered with references to past underwriters including the much-reviled (here on Trustpilot) Starr Insurance in 2022. So it's very confusing and even my certificate issued in July 2023 mentioned Starr but they corrected it, when asked, to Zurich. All in all rather confusing. And the coverage for vehicle rental excess is extremely low ($500-1000) making it not much help when car companies usually put that figure at $1500-2500
I ordered some gear to Norway, which is part of the EEA but not the EU. The parcel was stopped and tax (USD$15) & broker fees (also USD$15!) collected from me by the post office when I went to pick it up. This was a surprise to me since my order from Smallrig.com showed tax had been paid. I wrote to Smallrig and after a few days' delay (the pandemic is hitting China hard presently) I got a reply requesting evidence. After sending that, I received the amount reimbursed in full. Not sure if this is their standard practise; it was a little stressful and took me half an hour of email writing and scanning receipts but at least I'm not out of pocket. Surely easier to just make sure all the documentation is correct before sending it? Other than that, I'm happy with all the equipment from Smallrig.